Roads Untraveled
by doomedbuvky
Summary: What happens when a runaway HYDRA agent finds The Winter Soldier on her motel doorstep? Or when he kicks her door down in search of help? Read more to find out!


**Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my story, I'm so excited it grabbed your attention! I hope everyone enjoys and feel free to leave any constructive criticism down below, or just tell me how much you liked it, thanks for reading!**

 **\- Morgan!**

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Her smooth lips wrap around the filter of her demise, smoke and tar filling her lungs as she inhales heavily, a feeling of relief wrapping around her like a snug blanket as the nicotine sends her senses into a delightful frenzy.

Smoke rushes out of her nose as the cool Maryland wind washes over her face and makes the Evergreen trees ruffle in the slightest motion. Her chin rests on her knee cap as her other leg dangles from the chair, mindlessly swinging from left to right in small, slow circles. She inhales again, time passing ever so slowly as she watches the highway separating her motel and the heavy woods. A couple cars had passed but not many, seeing as it was two in the morning she didn't think there would be much more, but she still watched. Leaning back in the tough, plastic chair, Jade inhales again and the same relief washes over her. Her head dips back, dark hair cascading over the back of the chair as another gust of wind passes, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin. She takes another couple of drags, relishing in the breeze and the nicotine as the smallest of smiles manages to creep onto her lips.

But her smile, as well as her relaxation, is short lived when she hears the sound of a door slamming shut. Her body immediately tenses, her posture straightens as her both of her feet stomp onto the ground and her eyes turn into a cold stare.

"Hi, how ya doing?" The man from the room next to her's said as his lips stretch into an awkward smile "Sorry to startle you, the wind kind of took it from me." She said nothing in response, Jade simply stared with her cautious and cold eyes. "Okay then." The man said after seconds of her just staring at him and his uncomfortable grin. With a turn of his body, his feet began to lead him to wherever he was going.

Once he was out of sight, Jade sat back and turned her attention back to the woods across the street. She began to count the branches of the biggest tree she saw as she took the last drag of her cigarette. As she counts, she lets the cigarette burn until it reaches the filter then flicks it on the ground before stepping on it and putting it out with the sole of her shoe.

As she goes to stand, Jade catches a glimpse of something moving in the woods. Blue eyes squint to see so far and she's able to tell it's a man. The figure was broad and tall, strolling towards her with determination and precision. She stands tall, eyes never leaving the figure coming her way as she bends briefly to grab her pack before slowly backing towards the door of her room. As her hand fumbles to find the doorknob, Jade's body tenses. He body always tensed whenever there was man trekking through the woods in the middle of the night, and with good reason too. She was always afraid it was an another operative coming to drag her back, kicking and screaming. It was either that or she was always afraid they'd finally brought out the big guns to kill her. As the man nears the edge of the woods, she notices there's a part of him that's shining. If it was even possible, her eyes squint even more to really focus on the glowing piece of _metal_.

"Oh my god." And as the three words stumble from her lips so lowly, she realizes that they'd finally brought out the big guns to kill her. Her cold fingers find the doorknob as soon as the man across the street takes his first step onto the road. She stumbles backwards into her room, shutting the door as soon as she's deep enough into the grungy room. Her breaths are heavy, close to gasps, as she scrambles around the room throwing her belongings into whichever bag was closest. Usually, she was organized and kept certain clothes with certain accessories and all of her toiletries in another bag but not now. Now, she was simply trying to get the hell out of here. In her haste, she slightly pulls the dust covered curtain back to peer out the window at him. He was halfway across the usually busy road, but she noticed his slow steps and how heavy and tiring each step seemed to him. His long, unruly hair was cast in front of his face as his flesh hand was clutching his torso. As she looked longer, she realized that he was injured, she could barely see the blood that was slowly drying on his fingers as more continued to coat them.

She continues to watch him struggle, hypnotized by his suffering steps and the way he'd clutch at his side when he took too many steps too quickly. Something about watching him struggle made her insides sing with small delight, maybe it was because she was so used to him not showing any sort of emotion at all or maybe it was because she had only ever seen him succeed. It wasn't normal of him to show any feeling of pain or grief or any emotion at all, witnessing his tough exterior crack made her almost smile.

Jade is pulled from her daze when she realizes he's made it across the highway now, he's only steps away from being on the same lot she's on and that fact sends her body into a panic. After closing the curtains, she turns her back on the window and begins to double check the room for anything she'd missed in her haste. When she's satisfied, she pulls the gun from under her pillow and walks towards the window again. After making sure it's loaded, she peers through the curtains again and he was there. He was kneeling in the patio area the room had, picking up her most recent cigarette butt with his metal fingers, twirling it between his thumb and middle finger for a few seconds before letting it fall to the ground.

By this point, she'd already stopped looking and moved to stand at the side of the door. Her gun was ready with her finger on the trigger as she prepared herself for the mess that was about to come.

She was ready for a fight, she was ready to be battered and bruised, scraped and cut but she wasn't ready to be killed. Not yet.

Jade was expecting him to barrel through the door with his body, or break the doorknob and push it open with his heavy, metal hand, or even kicking it open. However, she got nothing she had feared for, instead a heavy knock was delivered to the other side of the door. She frowned, but kept her finger ready on the trigger and her body unwavering from her tough stance.

"Jadiza." The syllables were spoken in a heavy, urgent breath. "Let me in." Her grip became a little tighter on the gun as she narrows her eyes on the door, but other than that not a bone moves in her body. Tension fills the air as she stares at the door, listening to his heavy breaths that soon become more like wheezes than breathing. "Jadiza." His voice was more stern this time but it wasn't as bone chilling as it used to seem, maybe because it was spoken in a struggled breath or because she had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins due to being ready to fight for her life.

There's another break of silence for a moment before the sound of wood splitting into dozens of pieces and hinges ripping from the wall flooded the room. He'd kicked open the door, as she had predicted but he didn't walk over the debris and stand tall, ready to fight like she'd predicted. Instead, he dragged his feet over the debris, and sagged against the wall as soon as he was fully in the door. As he continues to slide down the wall a small trail of blood is left behind on the wall.

Jade's furrowed brow deepens as her eyes frantically go back and forth from the trail of blood to him. The grip on her gun loosens, but never fails, and the tenseness in her body slowly begins to fade.

"вставать." Jade points the gun at his weak figure, her face cold as stone as a sweat begins the break on her forward. She gets no words in reply, just a tired stare before he slowly begins to lift himself from the ground.

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 _ **вставать - get up**_

 **Gotta add a little Russian in there, yanno! Thanks for sticking through and reading, hope you enjoyed!**


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